Drum for time controlled mechanism



14, 1951 E. H. PITNEY DRUM 'FOR TIME CONTROLLED MECHANISM 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 5, 1945 llLl l|l| I VIM um Afiornegs Aug. 14, 1951 E. H. PlTNEY DRUM FOR TIME CONTROLLED MECHANISM 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 5, 1945 O O O O O O O 0 izveaivr W Patented Aug. 14, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DRUM EOR- TIME CONTROLLED MECHANISM Earl H; Pitney, Minneapolis, Minn. Application April 5, 1945 Seriat No. 586,377 6 1 Claim.

invention relates to time control mechanisms and more particularly to drum structures for use, in said mechanismsr invention relates to a time control device which can be utilized in any apparatus where a change in a control unit is desired to take place at certain. predetermined intervals, used in connection with mechanical or electrical time controlled mechanisms and it is being shown and described herein in connection with. time controlled mechanism for automatically selecting desired. radio programs over an extended period of time. It might conveniently be used in connection with. time controlled radio tuning apparatus such as disclosed in my prior Patents Number 2,322,387, issued June 22,1943, and Number 2,172,623,,issued September 12, 1939.

In my prior patents I have disclosed a control drum which is spun oro-therwise formed with an integral side wall having a plurality of. helically arranged perforations adaptedv to: receive projecting pins which can. be placed. in desired perforations to actuate the remainder of the control mechanism. The drums disclosed in my prior patents have been found expensive to manufacture due to difiicu-l-ty and expensive machinery required to perforate the side wall of the drum with the hundreds of holes required to produce a mechanism which will operate over a period of one week for example;

It is a general object of the present invention to provide a control drum for time mechanisms which is much more practical and inexpensive to manufacture and which at the same time will have the same degree of accuracy as those drums mentioned above.

More particularly it is an object of the invention to provide a drum including a simply and cheaply constructed cage upon which is mounted a sheet or strip, of material in which the pin receiving perforations can be formed without reuiring. expensive special machinery therefor.

Another object of the invention is to provide a control drum in the form of a cage having the perforated sheet or strip placed therearound, wherein the cage per se is relatively light and unstable but the sheet or strip which is placed around it will bind the entire structure together to produce a strong, light drum unit.

The above and other objects and advantages of the invention will more fully appear from the following description made in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the views, and in which:

It can be Figure 1- is a generally diagrammatic plan view of a time controlled radio receiver embodying my invention;

Figure 2. is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view through the drum;

Figure 3. is an enlarged perspective view, partially exploded, of the drum with part of the helical strip broken away Figure 4-. is a fragmentary exploded view of a d-ifierent. form of drum cage; and

Figure 5 isa fragmentary detail of a portion of the helical. strip showing one type of anchoring pin which can be used therewith.

InFig-ure 1 there: is'shown in general and without any detail a time: controlled radio receiver such as disclosed in. my prior Patent Number 2,322,387. A radio receiving set is indicated at 6 and anelectricclock is shown at 1.; The main clock shaft 8 drives a largegea-r- 9 which in turn rotates a shaft Hi upon which a control drum I i la siida-ble but keyed thereto to rotate therewith. A feed screw I21, the groove of which is engaged r by" a follower pin I3 is adapted to cause the drum. H: to move from left to right as the clock shaft: 8- and drumshaft t0: rotate, as disclosed in said- Patent Number- 2,322,387.

Withirntherectangle indicated by the dash line HE is trip means and radio tuning mechanism actuated by a resilient storing drive element l5 driven ashaft' Iii which receives its power from theclock The trip mechanism in the rectangle I4 includes: 3 trip levers ll whose ends are adapted to engage pins I8 which are selectively and removab'ly positioned in apertures 19' formed the: circular wall on the drum ii. Thus far the general mechanism is: as disclosed in Patent Number 2,322,387, and will not be explained in detail herein.

As stated above it is the object of the present invention to provideanimproved structure for the control drum Il' whose rotation with the pins [8 therein causes the trip levers IT to be actuated.

in Figures 2 and 3 there is shown a cage including a pairof disk-like end pieces 2Q having a series of notches 21 formed around their edges; Extending between the end pieces 20 are relatively closely spaced thin flat longitudinal members 22 which have sufilcient resilience to flex rather readily. The longitudinal members 22 have notches 23 formed closely adjacent their ends and the notch ends of said longitudinal members are adapted to interlock with the notched portions 21 of the end pieces 28. If desired, the ends of the longitudinal members 22 may be Welded to the end pieces 20 but it is also possible and preferred that the notches 23 be of such Width as to frictionally engage the end pieces 20 to hold the cage together during the assembly of the complete drum.

Wound helically about the cage made up of the end pieces 20 and longitudinal members 22 is a strip 24 having the apertures 19 formed therein. As shown in the drawing, the apertures 19 are provided in spaced rows longitudinally of the strip 24, and it will also be seen that the apertures lie in rows longitudinally of the drum structure.

As illustrated. in the drawing the edges of adjacent convolutions of the strip 24 abut one another and the ends of the strip may be bent over adjacent longitudinal members 22 and secured thereto by any suitable means such as spot welding as indicated at 25 in Figure 3. When the strip 24 is wound about its supporting cage it will be seen that the longitudinal members 22 will be held in close engagement with the disc-like end pieces 29 and the resulting structure while light in weight is a simple and extremely rigid drum unit.

The pins 58, one of which is shown in detail in Figure are adapted to be selectively placed in any of the desired openings 19 in the strip 24. As disclosed in my prior Patents Number 2,322,387 and Number 2,172,623, the trip levers I! will not, be actuated until the rotation of the drum ii brings one of the pins 19 into contact with one of the trip levers.

Formation of the strip 24 is considerably cheaper than the formation of a drum such as disclosed in my prior patents since it can be quickly and easily stamped on a punching machine to produce the large number of apertures required for automatic tuning a radio receiver for a period of one week. The strip 24 is shown with three rows of holes formed therein. Regardless of the number of the rows of holes it is clear that the strip can be fed through the punching machine at a relatively rapid rate and the holes can be punched at predetermined intervals as the strip is fed. It is then a simple matter to wind the strip on its supporting cage and by reason of the predetermined spacing of the holes longitudinally of the strip 2 1 the finished drum will present straight lines or rows of holes longitudinally of the drum with such exactitude that positive and accurate control is achieved.

In Figure 4 there is shown a detail of a diiferent form of cage structure. It shows a portion of a cage end piece 29 having spaced apertures 21 formed about its edge portion. Instead of the fiat longitudinal rods 22, as shown in Figure 3, there is illustrated a plurality of round bars 28 having reduced ends 29 which fit into the apertures 21 in the end piece 26. The reduced ends 29 extend through the end piece 26 and can be turned over to prevent them from slipping out of the end piece. The punched helical tape 24 can then be wound around the cage thus formed in the same manner as described in connection with the structure in Figures 2 and. 3.

In both cage constructions it should be understood that the longitudinal members 22 and 28 are comparatively narrow and should any of the short projecting pins 18 engage one of the longitudinal members, said members will be sufficiently flexible to shift slightly and permit insertion of the pins l8.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that I have provided a simply constructed drum for use in time controlled mechanism which has the advantage of easy and low cost manufacture, and while it is made of relatively thin, light parts the complete drum unit has sufficient stability and rigidity to operate successfully and accurate- 1y. It is a drum structure which is particularly suited for mass production and will greatly reduce the overall cost of manufacturing all types of time controlled units to which it is adapted particularly automatic tuning mechanisms for radio receivers.

It will, of course, be understood that various chan es may be made in the form, details, arrangement and proportions of the various parts without departing from the scope of my invention.

W hat I claim is:

A pin carrying drum comprising a pair of drum heads, a plurality of circumferentiaily spaced laterally flexible stretchers extending between said drum heads and fastened thereto, and a strip wound helically over said stretchers to form a drum wall, said strip having a series of control stations at predetermined intervals along its length and each of said control stations being constituted as a plurality of spaced apart pin-receiving apertures located crosswise of the strip.

EARL H. PITNEY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 974,127 Daniell et al Nov. 1, 1910 1,042,096 Eldred Oct. 22, 1912 1,171,545 Sands Feb. 15, 1916 1,172,080 Voight Feb. 15, 1916 1,237,517 Honey Aug. 21, 1917 1,245,485 Martyn Nov. 6,191? 1,317,109 Sohm Sept. 23, 1919 1,599,504 Underwood Sept. 14, 1926 1,605,471 Schenk Nov. 2, 1926 1,793,230 Williams Feb. 17, 1931 1,801,129 Warren Apr. 14, 1931 1,858,592 Johnson May 17, 1937 2,129,916 Erickson Sept. 13, 1938 2,172,623 Pitney Sept. 12, 1939 2,295,682 Oliver Sept. 15, 1942 2,322,387 Pitney June 22, 1943 2,333,248 Harvey Nov. 2, 1943 2,349,946 Durr May 30, 1944 2,356,026 Berry Aug. 15, 1944 

